Political Regimes and Immigrant Party Allegiances

• In Event: Migration and Political Regimes

Abstract

This cross-national study examines how immigrants’ party allegiances in contemporary democracies are shaped by the nature of political regimes in their origin countries. I posit that, in developing party allegiances, immigrants from single-party dictatorships react against the nature of political regime in their origin country. Specifically, since the institutional base of single-party dictatorships is a political party, newcomers from these regimes are less likely to become partisans in their host country than immigrants from other regimes. However, if they do become partisans, they are less likely to develop an attachment to a left-wing party as a reaction to the communist ideology present in many single-party dictatorships. The analyses using individual-level data collected as part of the five-round European Social Survey (ESS) 2002-2012 in seventeen established democracies confirm these expectations. Hence, the nature of political regimes in migrants’ countries of origin does shape their party allegiances in receiving societies. However, while immigrants from democracies usually develop allegiances to parties similar to the ones they supported in origin countries, arrivals from dictatorships exhibit a backlash against the political system of their origin country. For immigrants from single-party dictatorships, this manifests itself in a lower likelihood of acquiring an identification with a left-wing party, and in many cases failing to develop a party identification in the first place. Moreover, these effects are particularly pronounced among immigrants from more undemocratic regimes.

Author

• Aida Just, Bilkent University